Health insurance access and disease profile for women in India

Women’s access to health care is an important public health and human rights issue. India has been at the forefront of efforts for Universal Health Coverage (UHC) via publicly funded health insurance (PFHI) programmes. However, the rapid rise of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) signals a need to re-examine and reorient health policy priorities. The paper examines the changing burden of NCDs which include cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), cancer, diabetes and kidney disorders, and chronic respiratory diseases for women in India, its determinants, particularly the role of women’s agency, and compares the concordance between the burden of disease with health accessed via insurance using the case study of Meghalaya, India. Evidence from our research indicates the need for state specific policies to address the NCDs among women and secondly to understand the NCD burden based on risk profiles and its district wise variation.